F. Scott Fitzgerald once said there are no second acts in American lives. However, after having spent 20 years in the IT industry, serving in various roles from system administration to network engineer (10 of which have been in education), I’ve recently decided that my second act should be as a freelance writer covering the investor's view of the technology industry. My background in engineering gave me what I consider strong analytical skills. My 15 years of trading and investing gives me the experience to assess equities and appraise their value. I am a Warren Buffett disciple that bases investment decisions on the quality of a company's management, its growth prospects, return on equity and price-to-earnings ratio. I employ conservative strategies to increase capital while also keeping a watchful eye on macro-economic events to mitigate downside risk.

Why Apple is Great and Everyone Else Is Not Even Close

People tend to lose perspective in any discussion of Apple shares. Somehow we are all experts, but we really have no idea what is going on behind the scenes.

Apple’s recent earnings announcements and product releases serves as a perfect example of how irrational investors have become. I will concede that Apple’s Q4 was not on par with what I have come to expect (and I’m long the stock.) We can also agree that the macro climate has not exactly been favorable to even the best tech companies.

Amazon reported a loss of $274 million and Google didn’t necessarily excite anyone with its report, accidentally released as it was. On a similar note, Microsoft missed both its top and bottom line estimates of $18.11 billion and $0.65 per share, which ended its streak of revenue growth spanning four quarters.

Nonetheless, Apple’s results are what everyone remembers. It was a reminder that the company is led by humans, not magicians. Was the “disappointment” (if you can call it that) a onetime blunder or a sign of something worse? During the quarter, Apple generated revenue of $36 billion and $8.2 billion in profit, or $8.67 per diluted share. Those figures in 2011? Revenue: $28.3 billion. Profit: $6.6 billion. Per share earnings: $7.05.

The iPhone saw an impressive year-over-year unit growth of almost 60%. Ipad sales were up 26%. The company saw tremendous growth across all of its entire product lines, but critics scream “cannibalization” at every turn. It doesn’t make sense.

Apple cares more about how it is executing its business than it does about what we think it should be doing. That’s the way it should be. Expectations were so high (and continue to be) to the extent that 30% revenue growth was not enough to keep the street happy. Competition may be catching up a bit, but it is catching up because Apple is leading. The gap may be narrowing a bit but they will never have the logo and what it stands for.

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There’s a fixation with Market Share that has no effect on individual users. So many Android phones are sold very low margins, or at a loss. Sorry, I don’t think I want that ‘share’ of the market. You’re all welcome to it. The fact is, as you point out, Apple is GROWING, by double digits, in revenue, profits, and number of units of everything sold (except iPods….but but! they still have the biggest market share in mobile MP3 players! can I get a witness! THAT’S the most important thing after all, right?) At the end of the day, their iPhone sales went up 58% percent over the prior year. Really, how COULD they do better? They’re building these things in a surreal environment at Foxconn, under conditions humans have never really been under before. So intense that people have killed themselves a few years ago, and now they’re making 58% MORE phones than those sad days (even more than 58%, because there was large growth for the year in between too, plus, the facility is making all the iPads too. The margins are helped by the fact that there are so few models and choices, and also the interchangeability between whole product lines! I’m not 100% sure, but it looks to me that the touch screen is the same on the iPod Touch and iPhone 5. Who else has that?? One of the most expensive parts of the devices too. How nice to order 10′s of millions of screens from LG or whoever, and they’re ALL THE SAME SIZE! Meanwhile, Samsung is making 20 screen sizes, different resolutions, different battery sizes, different OS’s (Android, Windows, that home grown thing they have) . Apple just works smarter, and everyone else does grunt work. To be proud of Market Share is like being proud of working 7 days a week at minimum wage, and feeling like you’re winning compared to your neighbor, who writes a hit song every 6 months, and makes millions off it.

yes, the old fanboy attack. When apple fanboys were less than 5% who owned all things apple, that may have have some sort of remote truth to it. Now though, with iPhones holding 25% plus market share, iPads with a 60% plus market share and the Mac being the only PC showing continued growth over the past three years…and all of this growth due to NEW apple customers…the fanboy chant just sounds hollow.

The numbers speak for themselves. Even new, Apples new non fanboy customers are still giving Apple the industries highest customer satisfaction rating. Apples growth is so far ahead of any others company in the industry. Ditto with sales and profit margins.

The sky is blue… I must be a fanboy. The snow is white… I must be a fanboy. Apple is out performing Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung, Dell, and HP in both growth and profits. Every phone and tablet is compared to the iPhone or the iPad. Those being the standard.

Sorry folks, to recognize these facts is not the act of a fanboy. It’s the act of someone who can see.